As History Is Made and Clone Debate Begins, Dolly Just Looks Sheepish; I'm Sorry Mr President but It Wasn't Me Who Started All This Fuss

As History Is Made and Clone Debate Begins, Dolly Just Looks Sheepish; I'm Sorry Mr President but It Wasn't Me Who Started All This Fuss

Byline: RODDY MARTINE

AS 20th century landmarks go, it will

rank with man's first walk on the moon, the splitting of the atom and the assassination of President Kennedy, although it is unlikely people will remember where they were the day Dolly was introduced to the world.

It was nevertheless an historic occasion. People felt privileged to be present and were staring at Dolly as if they had never seen a sheep before.

They certainly hadn't seen one like this. Although Dolly had nothing to distinguish her from all the other sheep on the planet, she is a truly unique creature, an exact genetical copy of her mother - and nobody there had ever seen a clone before.

News of her creation caused ripples all the way across the Atlantic to the White House where President Clinton said the successful experiment was `startling' and called on a US bioethics advisory commission to review the implications for human beings.

There are fears the technology could fall into the wrong hands and human experiments could begin which would bring too close for comfort the world of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World and the film The Boys From Brazil in which clones of Hitler were produced.

Wealthy people have already begun to show an interest in the idea of being cloned, according to Professor Martin Johnson of the Human Fertilisation and Embroyology Authority. …

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